Chase the Setting Sun...

As you have probably noticed thus far; I have been going over what makes a worship service good, in particular, the worship music. This seems to be one of those things that, depending on how you look at it, is either really simple or really difficult. Much of the time it's insanely difficult for me, I think, because I am always over analyzing it based on my knowledge of music.

Take today for example. We played some older songs during our worship set. Not to us by Chris Tomlin, We Fall Down, How Great is our God, and Mighty to Save by Laura Story. Pretty basic worship songs. The beginning of our opening set my amp malfunctioned and Matt, our pastor for today, had to vamp for a few minutes while I figured out what was going on.

We finally got everything together and played through the first song ok. The second song the slides were wrong and we lost our place and ended the song incredibly awkwardly all at different times. The next two songs towards the end went fine.

Being who I am (a music nazi) I was ripping myself apart the rest of the day because the beginning of the service went bad. Talking to people after the service though, and my wife later, apparently no one really noticed the apparent train wreck I felt was occurring and thought we did a great job. So either I'm completely nuts or everyone was lying to me.

Now I'm sure it wasn't quite as bad as I imagine, I always am ridiculously hard on myself about these things. I know that God can break through our crap and still show Himself through technical difficulties and missed song endings. I shouldn't worry about that. The problem is, and maybe it's not really a problem, I take my job so seriously that every little mistake I take upon myself for not rehearsing the band well enough or not preparing well enough myself. I mean, I'm the leader, if something goes wrong it's my fault, even if someone else is the one that forgets something or makes a mistake. It has to be my fault for not rehearsing them well enough.

Anyway, from what I was told after, the music went fairly well. So does it really matter all that much in a worship service if the music is stellar or we play the coolest, hippest, new worship songs? I guess not. All that matters is that we are true to the reason we are there, to worship God. If we hang on to that God will break through our mistakes and show Himself to those worshiping with us.

Maybe someday I'll get over it and stop killing myself for minor mistakes and details...ok probably not, but at least after letting off some steam I can realize that God is a Bizillion times bigger than me and nothing I do can get in His way.

This is a blog post I wrote for Ramblings of a Rebellion about a year ago. I thought it still would apply to most that might read this blog.

What is leading worship about? What makes a good worship leader? As our church begins to search for a worship leader/vocalist I have been thinking about what it takes to be a good worship leader.

- First off, a worship leader needs to be a talented vocalist. Singing should come naturally to this person. If a worship leader has to spend too much energy and thought thinking about how they are singing, they are not focusing on worshiping.

- A worship leader should have an overwhelming passion for worshiping God. Worship should overflow out of a worship leader's heart. When a congregation sees the leader actively and passionately worshiping Christ they can't help but worship God themselves.

- A Worship leader should be able to connect and lead musicians and vocalists of all ages and levels of talent. You wont always have the best musicians in your group. The job of the worship leader is to be able to work with the lesser musicians and help them raise their game. A musician doesn't have to be the most technically talented player in the world to be solid and sound good. The worship leader needs to be able to take what skills the musician possesses and make the most of them to help that person blend with the rest of the band.

- A worship leader is NOT an entertainer. He/She is not there to entertain the congregation and keep them happy. It is not always about playing the catchiest songs, or getting the congregation to sway and clap. It is about inviting the congregation into authentic worship. It is about rising above ourselves and connecting with God and each other through the act of worship.

A lot of times we see worship leaders that are crowd pleasers. They are there only to entertain and please those listening to them. A true worship leader is there with an audience of one. He/She can forget about themselves and the desire to be noticed and focus on Christ and connecting with Him. If the connection between worship leader and Christ is made and is real, the congregation will feel more comfortable about making that authentic connection with the One they are worshiping and come out of their shell and worship as well.

This is an ongoing thought process. These are just some thoughts I have had lately on what I expect from whomever we hire down the road.